Bridesmaid Jewelry: Wedding Jewelry For Your Bridesmaid

Your bridal party can accessorize their dresses with jewelry they already own, or you can choose certain pieces to match the style or look of your wedding day. You can choose your bridesmaid jewelry based on their dresses, hairstyles or any look that you like. You can find wedding jewelry for your bridesmaid in every style and price range.

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How to Choose Jewelry For Your Bridesmaids

First, decide if the jewelry is to wear at the wedding, or if it’s a thank you gift. If it’s a bridesmaid gift for the person, choose based on their personal style. Look at the pieces she wears everyday to get ideas about what types she like to wear. Does she like to wear necklaces? Earrings or bracelets?

If the jewelry’s a thank you gift, notice her personal style:

Does she only wear stud earrings or hoop earrings?
How about the necklace length - does she like them short, long or in between?
Are the styles big or small?
Delicate or bold?

If you’re buying jewelry as a thank you gift, read this next for more ideas Bridesmaid Gifts: How to Thank Your Bridal Party

Choosing Wedding Jewelry For Your Bridal Party

If you’re buying jewelry for your bridesmaids to wear on your wedding day, start by deciding on the style you want for them. Decide if you want a elegant, formal look or a laid back and casual look. If you don’t have a certain style in mind, you can browse for ideas.

Or you can choose based on the pieces you’ve chosen for yourself. Usually, their dresses were chosen to complement your own dress. You can choose their wedding jewelry the same way - the bridesmaid accessories can complement your bridal jewelry.

For example, if you’re wearing a strand of pearls, your bridesmaids could wear a pearl pendant or earrings. Or if you’re wearing a jeweled choker, they could wear a chain with a matching stone.

Does Bridesmaid Jewelry Have to Match?

The bridesmaid jewelry doesn’t need to match yours, or each others. It just depends on the look you’re going for:

If you’re planning a formal, elegant wedding with matching dresses and hairstyles it’ll look best to match your jewelry, too.
If your wedding is semi formal or casual, you can still match your bridesmaid jewelry. If you want a certain, stylish look for your wedding day and photos, you can choose matching jewelry for your wedding party.
If your bridesmaids are wearing different dresses, matching their jewelry could make the bridal party look more pulled together, especially for wedding photos.
If you decide not to match, you can still have a harmonious look by sticking with a style, color or metal. For example, you could choose earrings or necklaces that are different, but each piece is gold with diamonds.
Or you could let each bridesmaid choose her own. If the dresses and shoes match, your wedding party will look great, even without matching jewelry.

Who Pays For the Bridesmaid’s Jewelry?

Typically, a bridesmaid will pay for her own dress and accessories, including shoes and jewelry. Some brides like to purchase the bridesmaids earrings and a necklace, then include it in their bridal party thank you gifts.

If it’s not in your wedding budget, it’s ok to ask your bridesmaid to buy the pieces you choose. As long as you’re considerate of their finances, and how much they’ve spent all together, you can pick jewelry for the bridesmaids to buy.

How Much Should Bridesmaid Jewelry Cost?

If you’re asking your bridesmaid to buy her own accessories, be considerate of her finances and choose pieces that fit her budget. If you’re buying the bridesmaid accessories, check your own budget.

If you’re planning an inexpensive wedding, with affordable dresses and hairstyles, it’s ok to buy inexpensive jewelry as well. If you’re planning a bigger budget wedding with higher priced bridesmaid dresses, you’ll want better quality jewelry and you’ll need to spend more.

Bridesmaid Jewelry For Your Wedding Day

A classic look for a bridesmaid is gold, silver or rose gold with sparkling clear stones. It’s a classic because it never goes out of style, and it looks great on everyone. Another classic choice for your bridesmaid is pearls. Pearls look beautiful with a wedding dress or a bridesmaid dress.

If you’d like a more unique look, you can find colored jewelry for your bridesmaid. You could choose pearls that are colored pink or sage. Or you could choose jewelry with colored gemstones.

Gemstones come in every color from pink to purple, yellow to green. If you’d like to match your bridesmaid dresses, you can find pearls or gemstones in every color and every price range.

Choosing Earrings For Your Bridal Party

If you decide to have your bridesmaids wear earrings, consider the hairstyles they’ll be wearing on your wedding day. With an updo, small studs will look elegant. Or you can choose dangling earrings or chandelier earrings for a dramatic look.

If the bridesmaids are wearing their hair down for the wedding, the earrings won’t show as much. You might want to choose smaller earrings and make the necklace a focal point instead.

Choosing Necklaces For Your Wedding Party

When you’re choosing necklaces for your wedding party jewelry, the most important thing to consider is the neckline. Some necklaces look better with different styles of bridesmaid dresses.

Remember to choose one piece of jewelry to be the wow factor. If you’ve picked gorgeous chandelier earrings, don’t choose another attention grabbing piece for the necklace. If you’ve chosen small or simple earrings, you can make the necklace a standout.

Halter Dress, Illusion Neckline or One Shoulder Dress

Typically, this type of bridesmaid dress won’t have the space for a necklace. It’ll end up covered or tangled in the material. If your bridesmaids are wearing halter necklines or one shoulder dresses, it’s best to stick with earrings and bracelets for their wedding day look.

Dress with a Straight Across Neckline

A straight across neckline looks great with a collar or choker length necklace. A collar necklace is 13 to 15 inches long and it sits high on the neck. A choker necklace will sit slightly lower and it’s usually 15 to 17 inches long.

Either length will look perfect with a straight across neckline and you can usually find them in sets, with matching earrings and bracelets. Or, for a unique and stylish wedding day look, you can choose one of each and layer them.

Strapless Dress With a Sweetheart Neckline

A bridesmaid dress with a sweetheart neckline will look terrific with a pendant necklace. The length depends on how low the dress is cut. A standard pendant necklace is 18 inches long.

If the bridesmaid dresses are low cut, you can find pendant necklaces in 20 or 22 inch lengths as well. Have your wedding party try on a few different lengths of necklaces with their dresses. That way you can see each style and decide what length looks best.

Off The Shoulder Dress

With an off the shoulder bridesmaid dress you’ll want to choose a short necklace. One that’ll sit above the neckline, like a choker or collar necklace.

If the neckline doesn’t sit very low, a necklace might just get covered up. If a necklace would be covered by the neckline, you can skip it and choose some beautiful earrings instead.

Dress With a V-Neck

A bridesmaid dress with a v-neck will look fantastic with drop earrings and bracelets. If you’d like to add a necklace, choose a pendant necklace that matches the cut of the bridesmaid dress. Depending on how deep the plunge is, you can choose a necklace that’s 18, 20 or 22 inches long for the best look.

If your bridesmaids are different heights, sometimes a different length will look better on each one. To keep the look uniform, you can buy the same necklace and pendant, but in different lengths to flatter each woman.

Scoop Neck Dress

A bridesmaid dress with a scoop neckline will suit any type of necklace, depending on the style. The jewelry should be in proportion to the size of the scoop. You can usually tell just by looking.

Notice how much skin is showing and decide if the necklace should be bigger or smaller. If the scoop is wide and low, look for a necklace that will fit the space. If the dress has a smaller scoop, look for a delicate, shorter necklace.

Where to Shop For Bridesmaid Jewelry

You can shop for your bridesmaids at your favorite local stores, or you can check online. If you’re looking for unique, fun or inexpensive pieces for your wedding, Etsy has a huge selection in every price range.

Jewelry Set For Your Bridal Party

If you’re looking for a coordinated look for your wedding party, you can choose a set. That way you’ll know that the earrings, necklace and bracelet will match perfectly.

You can buy your sets individually, or look for a seller that offers bundles to help you save money. On Etsy, you can buy bridesmaid sets in bundles of 3, 4, 5 or more, depending on how many bridesmaids you have.

Gold Bridesmaid Jewelry

Gold is more expensive than silver, because it’s a more precious metal. But you can still find affordable options if you look for gold filled or gold plated jewelry, instead of solid gold. Gold filled pieces are made of a base metal, then have a layer of gold bonded over top. Plated gold pieces are the same, but with a thinner layer of gold.

24 carat gold is pure gold, but it’s too soft to use for jewelry. Most jewelry is 18 carat, which is 75% gold and 25% another metal. The second metal will make it more durable, and more affordable.

If cost is a consideration, 14 carat gold is a good choice. It’s 53% gold, which gives it a nice gold color, but makes it less expensive. 10 carat is the lowest purity. It has less golden coloring, but it’s still a pretty choice if you’re looking for affordable gold.

White Gold or Silver Bridesmaid Jewelry

Fine silver is too soft to make into jewelry. Most silver is mixed with copper to create sterling silver. It’s 92.5% silver and the rest is copper. Because of this number, sterling silver is usually called 925 silver. To be sure a piece is silver, you can look for a stamp of the number 925.

If you like the silver color, but don’t want the pieces to tarnish, you can choose white gold instead. White gold is gold mixed with nickel or zinc, then plated with a rhodium coating to give it a bright finish. White gold earrings, necklaces and bracelets are usually 14 or 18 carats.

Rose Gold Bridesmaid Jewelry

Rose gold is gold mixed with silver and copper, to give it it’s signature pink color. Because of the copper, rose gold is less expensive than other types of gold. Higher carats of rose gold means there’s more pure gold in the mixture. Most rose gold earrings, necklaces and bracelets are made from 14 carat rose gold.

The copper mixture also makes it more durable and a great choice for earrings, necklaces or bracelets. Rose gold jewelry suits every skin tone and it looks stylish for a wedding party. If you’re on a tight budget, you can find rose gold plated pieces that are beautiful and affordable.

There’s lots to think about, so take your time looking. And don’t worry too much about getting things perfect. As long as it looks nice on your bridesmaids, you can be happy you’ve made the right decision. If you want, you can even ignore all these rules about choosing jewelry. If you like the way it looks - then it’s the perfect choice!